EU threatens Meta with fines over ‘addictive’ Facebook and Instagram
Meta must change Facebook’s and Instagram’s “addictive” design or face a heavy fine, the EU has warned. In its preliminary findings, the European Commission said features such as infinite scroll, autoplaying videos and…
‘Cool in 90 seconds’ – the fake portable air conditioners sweeping the internet
As parts of the UK brace for another hot weekend, online adverts have been appearing for portable air conditioners claiming to be “designed by former Nasa engineers” and able to “cool a room in 90 seconds”. The adverts have…
Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs and shrinks Xbox in ‘significant restructure’
Microsoft has announced it has cut 4,800 jobs – roughly 2.1% of its workforce – with Xbox to bear a large number of its latest layoffs. Amy Coleman, executive vice president at Microsoft, told employees in a memo that the tech giant needed to…
Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics
Meta is facing a backlash over its new AI tool Muse Image, which can generate pictures using other people’s profile pictures without telling them. It is one of many text-to-image tools publicly available, which as the name suggests can create…
Tech Life – Too young to scroll?
Available for over a year What is a good age to give a child a smartphone? A community in Ireland might have the answer. In Greystones there’s a voluntary agreement to wait until secondary school age. We hear from the school principal who leads the…
Renting makes robots affordable for work and play
In hospitals across the US, patients and staff have become accustomed to seeing a one-armed, four-foot high, friendly-looking white robot going about its business. Nurses have been known to greet Moxi, as the robot is called by its maker Diligent…
Why tech firms are raising PC and console prices – and blaming AI for chip costs
RSM UK’s tech senior analyst James Bull noted that the four largest US tech firms are expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on data centres and AI equipment in 2026. “That level of demand for memory chips has created a shortage…
Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks
Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience. In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of…
WhatsApp to let people chat with usernames – how to reserve one
The secure messaging app Signal introduced an identical service in 2024, external. “It is a good feature, but even if it does offer more privacy, remember WhatsApp is not a privacy-friendly app overall,” said Carisa Veliz, a professor at…
Tech Life – What happens when health information is shadow banned?
Available for over a year We look at an issue known as shadow banning. What is it? How does it work? And could it be affecting health education messages for women and young girls? Also this week: we’re feeling nostalgic about the discs that hold…